NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Most employers offer their employees retirement benefits in some shape or form. However, a recent survey report from HR strategy and compliance provider, XpertHR, suggests that companies vary widely in the methods used to communicate with employees about these benefits. The XpertHR 2023 Retirement Benefits survey found that more than a third of companies rarely or never send employees benefits communications related to retirement.
“Regular communications related to retirement can encourage employees to be mindful about their future financial well-being,” says Victoria Kelleher, Lead Survey Specialist at XpertHR. “However, some companies don’t seem to draw attention to the subject of retirement beyond the onboarding process.”
This sentiment is reflected by some of the survey’s results. Embedding information about retirement in the onboarding process is a practice at about 41% of organizations, but other methods to communicate about retirement are less common. Although emails or letters are also used to deliver retirement information at about two in five companies (39%), less than a third of companies host one-on-one meetings (27%) or in-person sessions to discuss retirement with employees (20%).
Interestingly, XpertHR’s data on the frequency of retirement communications was very different when small businesses and large businesses were examined separately. Although 39% of small businesses rarely or never send communications related to retirement, the same was true for only 5% of large businesses. Large businesses were much more likely to report frequent retirement communications, with 58% of large businesses sending communications at least fairly often, compared to only 17% of small businesses.
Perhaps it is not surprising that larger businesses tend to communicate more frequently about retirement. After all, large companies typically have more employees working in HR, which may enable them to delegate the task of designing a benefits-communication strategy to a specific employee or department.
According to Kelleher, such a strategy can confer more of a benefit to an organization than it might seem at first glance. “Making efforts to discuss retirement is a great way to demonstrate that an organization authentically cares about its employees on every level,” she says. “When employees believe that a company is invested in their well-being even beyond the term of active employment, it can help foster a sense of loyalty and keep them engaged.”
The XpertHR 2023 Retirement Benefits Survey gathered data using a self-administered online survey from November 22, 2022, to February 9, 2023. The sample included 210 employers from across the United States.
ENDS
About XpertHR®
Global leader XpertHR empowers organizations to shape HR strategy, manage employee risk, and embrace diverse talent ecosystems to create equitable, high-performing, and purposeful workplaces. Since 2002, the data analytics and intelligent solutions provider has earned a reputation for providing expert insights, trusted resources, and practical tools to help customers achieve greater efficiency, improve compliance, and increase employee engagement. XpertHR is proud to be part of the LexisNexis® Risk Solutions portfolio within RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. To learn more, visit xperthr.com.
